Persistent availability pressures suburban market despite moderate average asking rent adjustments
The Boston suburbs saw 1.1 million square feet (msf) of leasing activity in the first quarter, up 0.2 msf from this point last year, but still trailing the 5-year quarterly average, as has been the case for nine consecutive quarters. Many tenants continue to delay large, long-term commitments, though a few notable transactions emerged in the first quarter. Key bright spots included the Route 128 West submarket where Global Partners’ 100,000-square-foot (sf) new lease at 275 Grove Street and CyberArk’s 90,000-sf commitment at 140 Kendrick Street were completed. On the sublease front, Advisor360 signed on for an 83,500-sf portion of the TripAdvisor sublease listing.